Banning the bongs: New law targets sale of drug pipes

Thursday

Jun 27, 2013 at 3:59 PMJun 28, 2013 at 10:06 AM

On Monday, it will be a first-degree misdemeanor for someone “to knowingly and willfully sell or offer for sale at retail any drug paraphenalia.”

At the Stuff-N-Puffs smoke shop, you won't find the typical array of screenless glass pipes, water pipes or bongs. While the South Daytona shop only sells electronic cigarettes, hookahs and the chance to roll your own tobacco cigarettes, store owner Brenda Sherman said she wouldn't want to sell those other items anyway — items that legislators voted to ban. On Monday, it will be a first-degree misdemeanor for someone “to knowingly and willfully sell or offer for sale at retail any drug paraphenalia.” The law provides an exception for pipes made primarily of briar, meerschaum (a white, clay-like material), clay or corn cob. “We want to put out of business anyone selling paraphernalia used for smoking pot, crack or anything of that nature,” said Rep. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando. Prohibited are metal, wooden, acrylic, glass, stone, plastic or ceramic smoking pipes with or without screens, permanent screens, hashish heads or punctured metal bowls; water pipes; carburetion tubes and devices; chamber pipes; carburetor pipes; electric pipes; air-driven pipes; chillums; bongs; ice pipes or chillers. She said when the bill came across her desk during the 2013 session, she “just had to sign it.” “I used to get so many complaints about the paraphernalia available in convenience stores,” said Stewart, one of the bill's co-sponsors. Stewart said the legislation was prompted by sponsor Rep. Darryl Rouson's previous addiction to crack cocaine. She said Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, wanted to make it as tough as possible for anyone to take that same path that led him to drug addiction. . She said representatives are not trying to target smoke shops, but mostly the convenience stores that sell pipes. Stewart said even though kids must be 18 years old to purchase tobacco products, they don't have to be 18 to step foot in a convenience store and set their sights on these glass pipes that store owners market as tobacco pipes. “I don't know of anybody that uses a glass pipe for tobacco,” she said with a laugh. Sherman, who supports the ban, also knocked the idea that the glass pipes sold in convenience stores are used to smoke tobacco. She said store owners should have enough common sense to know tobacco is not what people are using the glass pipes for. Next door to her shop is one of the convenience stores that sells glass pipes as well as the tobacco to go with it, both products that someone must be 18 years of age or older to purchase. “We actually check IDs,” said Karan Rana, who helps run his father's store. Inside Rana's father's convenience store, next to Stuff-N-Puffs near the intersection of South Nova and Reed Canal roads, is a large case, lined with color-changing lights, of glass pipes. A sign on the case indicates that customers must be 18 or older to purchase the items inside. Rana said while the tobacco for the glass pipes is also available for purchase, he cannot control what someone does with the pipe once they leave the store. In fact, various critics of the law have said it contains a major loophole: the phrase “knowingly and willfully sell or offer for sale at retail any drug paraphenalia,” meaning people could still buy and sell bongs and other pipes for tobacco use. Rousen himself has admitted the law won't actually prevent people from procuring smoking devices, but said he still wanted to make it a little bit harder to do so while sending an anti-drug message. Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson said enforcement in the county will be handled much the same way the state's ban of synthetic drugs was handled with site visits and copies of the statute. “For those businesses that are selling banned items, they will get one warning from us to come into compliance or face the criminal sanctions provided for in the law,” Johnson said. He said after that, deputies will make return visits to those businesses to make sure they're in compliance, and for those that are still not, appropriate enforcement action will be taken. “We fully support this new law, as anything that restricts easy access to devices used primarily for the purpose of ingesting illegal and harmful drugs is a positive step and something that has law enforcement's backing,” Johnson said. “We're under no illusion, however, that this law will have a significant impact on the use of marijuana and other illegal drugs. However, I'm thankful that Florida will no longer facilitate easy access to bongs, pipes and other drug paraphernalia used by those who are intent on breaking the law and making bad decisions.”

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